Shakespeare
The words you can see in black and white
are actually written on his grave. They’re a
curse warning us never to move his bones.
Shakespeare, Glove Maker
Ben Crystal
w
This statue was created soon after
Shakespeare’s death. We think he looked
very similar to this when he was alive.
w
w
This is Stratford-upon-Avon, a town that gets
millions of visitors every year, thousands per
day, and they all come for one reason …
William Shakespeare.
rit
.b
The next part of my journey takes me to
Shakespeare’s family home.
I’m Ben Crystal, an actor and stage producer
of Shakespeare’s plays. I’m here to find out
why this small town in the centre of England
produced one of the country’s best-ever
playwrights, and why people are still visiting
Stratford-upon-Avon 400 years after
Shakespeare’s death.
Ben: They seem to be in a big, nice house.
They seem to be doing well. What did his
father do?
il.
Lisa: Shakespeare’s father was actually a
glove maker. And he did not only live in this
house, he also worked in here.
g/
or
Actor and actress:
When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning or in rain?
When the hurly burly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.
nc
ou
hc
is
Lisa: This is the house where Shakespeare
was born in April 1564, just upstairs in one
of the bedrooms.
ne
His father was a craftsman, and William
Shakespeare probably helped his father in
the glove workshop, so he would have
learned the trade of a glove maker himself.
And he also managed to get quite a lot of
references into his plays about gloves and
leather making.
h
lis
ng
I’m starting my journey at Holy Trinity
Church in Stratford-upon-Avon, where in
1564 Shakespeare was baptised, and then,
52 years later, buried.
Lisa: Yes, so it’s not just a family home, it’s
also his workplace.
ar
Jana Kukla: I just love Shakespeare, always
have, as a little kid too.
Yichun Chao: Romeo and Juliet – it was a
love story and it was very romantic.
Rose Hackl: He has the ability to show into
the heart, into the soul of the human beings.
Rand and Geraldine: They are kind of
cross-cultural, you know. Everyone … and
everywhere you go, people put on
Shakespearian shows. There is a
timelessness to it.
le
Ben: He worked here?
Ben: Romeo and Juliet – ‘Oh that I were a
glove upon that hand’.
©2016 British Council. The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are
registered in England as a charity.
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/shakespeare/stratford-2-lost-years
1
We’re pretty sure Shakespeare came to
school here – at King Edward’s, just around
the corner from the family home. William
was able to attend this school for free
because his father was a town councillor.
JM: Absolutely, undoubtedly. The plays are
full of all those classical references, and all
those great stories from Latin and Greek
classical literature.
w
Most successful playwrights of the time went
to university, but Shakespeare didn’t. He left
King Edward’s at 15, around the same time
his father began to have financial difficulties.
w
w
Dr Jonathan Milton: What do you think of
that?
.b
Ben: Oh my goodness!
rit
Ben: Did it harm Shakespeare’s career as a
playwright that he didn’t go to university?
hc
is
Ben: What type of education would he have
received here?
nc
ou
JM: They would have taught you how to
write here, how to read, but as you got later
up into the school, then the teaching was all
about Latin and Greek, translating Latin and
Greek into English, and writing speeches,
writing stories.
le
g/
or
il.
Ben: Would you say that the education he
received here shows in his plays, in his
poetry?
JM: Well, we think perhaps the opposite. At
university you were taught how to write plays,
so his style when he came into writing plays
was completely new. The text had that lovely
lyrical style; it’s beautiful poetry. And all the
stories that he’d learnt here at the school
were put into his plays. He certainly broke
through this whole formal way of making
plays, and suddenly a new way of looking at
theatre is opened up for everybody to come
and see.
h
lis
ng
ne
ar
©2016 British Council. The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are
registered in England as a charity.
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/shakespeare/stratford-2-lost-years
2